Mailbag, Vol. 1, Issue 2: “Publix is no longer my supermarket…”

[hupso title=”Mailbag, Vol. 1 Issue 2: @Publix is no longer my supermarket…” url=”https://ciw-online.org/blog/2015/05/mailbag-2/”]

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Pompano Beach resident disavows Publix after back and forth with customer service…

As you may recall, we launched a new web series this week — Mailbag: Letters from the Fair Food Nation!  We have received countless notes and anecdotes over the years from allies across the country, many of them truly inspiring, and it finally dawned on us that it might be nice to share some of the very best of those notes with the dear readers of this site.  And so today we bring you the second installment in that series, a letter from a Fair Food supporter named Jerry, living in Pompano Beach, Florida.  

After reading about the Publix-focused actions up in Asheville, North Carolina, Jerry sent us a very interesting exchange that he, as a concerned consumer, had with customer service representatives of Publix.  The exchange began with an initial letter to the supermarket a few months ago in which Jerry expressed his staunch support for the Fair Food Program and the sweeping changes it has brought to Florida’s fields — and his confusion at Publix’s incomprehensible decision to not even sit down to talk with the CIW.  He received the following response:

publix-sign

Dear Mr. Levy,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us.  We regret that we have failed to meet your expectations.  We would never knowingly disappoint our customers and we appreciate the trust you have placed in us to address your concern.

If you are seeking additional information on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) issue, we have included a detailed summary for your review on our website.  Please visit http://corporate.publix.com/about-publix/publix-faq/position-statements and click on “What is Publix’s position on Florida tomato farmworkers’ wages?”

If we may be of further assistance in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact … us via email at www.publix.com/contact... Please be sure to reference your case identification number. We look forward to serving and meeting all your future needs.

Sincerely,

Michelle
Customer Care

In response to this stunningly generic email, which reads more like an automated reply than a substantive response from a company that prides itself on customer service, Jerry wrote again, respectfully requesting that Publix defend — or even better, abandon — their head-in-the-sand position on Fair Food:

Dear Michelle,

Thank you for your kind response to my inquiry. I read with interest the following statement in Publix’s policy regarding CIW:

[W]e will not pay employees of other companies directly for their labor. That is the   responsibility of their employer, and we believe all parties would be better served if appropriate wages were paid by growers to their workers, and we were charged accordingly.

What if growers, however, refused to pay appropriate wages to their workers?  Does it not then become the ethical and moral responsibility of ultimate sellers (such as Publix) and consumers (such as me) to ensure that those hard workers who supply food to our tables have enough resources to put food upon their own tables?…

I’d like to see Publix, my market of choice ever since my family and I moved to Florida more than thirty years ago, make the same choice as The Fresh Market.

Most sincerely and hopefully,

Jerry

And Publix’s response to this thoughtful note?  Silence.  

Keeping a watchful eye on the CIW website, Jerry waited, in vain, for Publix to change its position on the Fair Food Program.  And so he wrote to Publix, one final time, last week:

Apparently nothing has changed in the months since our correspondence.

It is therefore, with great regret, that I must inform you that Publix is no longer my supermarket.  I’ve concluded that a provider’s ethical stance is even more important to me than their fine products and otherwise outstanding service.

Very truly yours,

Jerry

Even if brief, this exchange speaks volumes about Publix and its views on social responsibility, capturing the disdain the company has shown farmworkers — and concerned customers — since the the Fair Food Nation turned its eyes to Florida’s largest grocer.  Now five years into the Publix campaign, thousands of letters from Fair Food supporters have been met with the same public relations pablum, and any follow-up questions with silence.  

But Jerry is far from alone in turning his back on Publix for the company’s stand on Fair Food.  Countless customers have taken the same stand:  If Publix can’t commit itself to transparency, dignity and fairness, then it can’t be my grocery store.  And if Publix continues to stand against the tide of history, it will continue to lose the loyalty of thousands of longtime customers who, simply put, cannot abide Publix’s unethical stance on human rights for farmworkers.

So, thank you, Jerry, for sharing this exchange with us, and for giving words to what so many disappointed Publix customers feel about a store they thought was better than this, than to turn its back on fundamental human rights.  Keep an eye out for more from the CIW mailbag series in the weeks to come, and remember, if you have your own story from the front lines of the Fair Food movement to share, don’t hesitate to send it our way!